
Si/ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



011 899 212 A 



v 



J 



Hollinger 

pH8.5 

Mill Run F3-1955 



£" iS3 



Our theory of governnfcnrhas no place for 
a State except in the Onion. It fa justly 
taken for granted that the daties and respon- 
sibilities of B State in federal relations tend 
to its political health, and to that of the whole 

nation. Even Territories are hastily broughl 
dm, often before the prescribed conditions are 
"*■ fulfilled, as if it were dangerous to leave a 

community outside of the great body politic. 

£ Had the loyal Senators and Itepn 

lives of Tennessee been admitted at oi 
(he assembling of Congress, and, In moderate 
succession, Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, 
North Carolina and Virginia, the public mind 
of the South would have been tar more 
healthy than it is, and those States u hich lin- 
gered on probation to the last would have 

heni Under a more salutary inline:: 

Conduct than if a dozen armies watched over 

them. 

Every month that we delay this healthful 

step complicates the i Tl e excluded po- 

pulation, enough unsettled before.grow 
irritable ; tlie army become? indispensab 
local government, and supersedes it; the 
Government at Wasbiu - tiled to in- 

terfere in one and another difficulty, and this 
will be done inaptly, and with 

great injustice — for oar Government, wisely 
adapted to its own proper functions, is utter- 
ly devoid of those habits and unequipped 
with the instruments which lit a central 
Government to exercise authority in r< 
State- over local affairs. Every attemj 
perform such duties ha- resulted in misl 
which have excited the nation. But, what- 
ever imprudence there may Ik- in the method, 
the real criticism should he against the re- 
quisition of such duties of the General i 
eminent 

The federal ( ;<". i rumenl is unfit to 
cise minor police and local government, and 
will inevitably blunder wh in it attempts it. 
To keep a half score of States under Fi cleral 
authority, but without national ties and re- 
sponsibilities; to oblige the central authority 
to govern half the territory of the Union by 
Federal civil officers and by the army, is a 
policy not only uncongenial to our ideas and 
principle-, but pre-eminently dangerous to 
the spirit of OUT Government. However hu- 
mane the ends soughl and the motives, it i.-, 
iii fact, a course of instruct iring ■ 

our Government to lie despotic, and familiar- 
izing the people to a stretch of authority 
which can never be otherwise than 
oua to liberty. 

I am aware that good men are withheld 

from advocating the prompt and si; 
admission of the exiled Slate- by the fear, 

chiefly, of its effect upon the partu 

on the lVeedin -n. 

It is said that, if admitted to Congress, the 
. outhern Senators and Representatives will 
coalesce with Northern Democrats, and rule 

the country. Is this nation, then, to remain 
dismembered to serve the ends of parties '; 

Have we learned no wisdom by the history 

of the last ten years, in which just this course 
of sacrificing the nation to the exigencies of 
parties plunged us into rebellion and war? 



Even admit that the power would ;■ . 
to the hands of a party made up ol >oiithern 
men, and the hitherto dishonored and misled 
Democracy of the North, that power could 
not be used Jusl as they pleased. The war 
has changed, not alone Institutions, but ide is. 

The whole country ha- advanced. I 

sentimenl Is exalted far beyond what it has 
been at any former period. A. new party 

w ould, like a river, be . 

its channels in the already existing 

and forms of the continent. 

We have entered a new em of liberty. 
The st vie of thoughl \-< t ■■•■■ r and nee 
Me. The young men of our tinv i are | 

chool, 

and hundred men are gone 

home io preach a truer and nobler vi 
human rights. All the Industrial inter 
society are moving with increasing wisdom 
iward Intelligence and liberty. Everywhere, 

in churches, in literature, in natlll 

in physical industries, in 9oci i questions, as 
well as in politics, the Nation i : - that the 
Winter is over and a new Spring ban 
the horizon and works through all th 
mcnt8. In this happily clt id ad- 

i ondition of t ! iarty of the • 

retrograde can maintain itself Everything 
marches and parties musl march. 

1 bear, w ith wonder and -Cue' and. 
the fear of a few that lh ace more, hi 

adjustment with the Fed nmenl will 

rule this nation ' The North is rich — ni 
rich ; the South is poor— n i rer bef< 
poor. The population i this nearly 

double th it of the South. The industry of 
the North, in diversity, in 

productiveness, in all the machinery and ed- 
ucation required for manufacturing, is half ;i 
century in advance of the S Ch 

in the North cro^v n e\ -r- llil . and - 
swarm in every neighborhood; while the 
South has bul si itK n I 

lanci s, like lighth along the 

edge of a continent of dai [n tl 

■;' a u e. > i mtrast, b ■ nean and cja- 
ven is the fear that the South will rule the 
policy of the land ! That, il will have an in- 

. that it w ill contribute, in 'inn . 
important influen 

J d to believe. Hut. il once to the 

will be because 

rth, demoralized 

■ \ tiling in! to dis- 

charge Its share at politit i luty. In such 

;!i not. on! 
vernment, but it ought 

'.'. It is feared, w ith more reas in, th 
restoration of t 1 e So ill indepen- 

dence will be c.. trimental to the freedm in. 
miss from our minds the 
idea thai the freedmen < in i classified and 
sep irated from the « lation, and 

nursed and def< nded b 
ter it will be for themselves and us. TJ 
gro is part and parcel of Southern - 

lb' cannot be p; 

pered. Its evils will reboun I upon him. Its 
happiness and reinvigoration cannot b 

from his pat 



the South to amicable relations with the 
North the reorganization of its industry, the 
reiuspiration of its enterprise and thrift, will 
•til redound to the freedmen's benefit. JSo- 
tlmw is so dangerous to the ffeedmen as an 
unsettled state of society in the bouth. On 
him comes all the spite, and anger, and ca- 
price, and revenge. He Wll be made the 
scapeeoat of lawless and heartless men. Un- 
it- J we turn the Government into a vast mil- 
itarv machine, there cannot he armies enough 
to protect the freedmen while Southern soci- 
ety remains insurrectionary. If Southern so- 
ciety is calmed, settled, and occupied and 
soothed with new hopes and Prosperous in- 
dustries no armies will be needed. foots will 
subside, lawless hangers on wall he driven ofl 
or better governed, and a way Will be grad- 
ually opened up to the freedman, through ed- 
ucation and industry, to full citizenship? with 
all its honors and duties. 

Civilization is a growth. None can escape 
that forty years in the wilderness who travel 
from the" figyPt ?f ignorance to the gomued 
land of civilization. The freedmen must 
take their march. I have full faith in the 
results If they have the stamina to undergo 
the hardships which every uncivilized people 
has undergone in their upward progress, they 
will in due time take their place among us. 
That place cannot be bought, nor bequeath- 
ed, nor gained by sleight of hand. It wi 1 
come to sobriety, virtue, industry and frugali- 
ty <Vs the nation cannot be sound until the 
b,u,th is prosperous, so on ? the other ex 



MR. GREELEY'S REPLY. 



AND 



the 



MAGNANIMITY — BEECIIEK-WISE 
OTHERWISE. 

"We have been most anxious that, 
settlement of our great National difference, 

the North should deal generously with the 
South. Only let Slavery be utterly annihila- 
ted— root, branch and suckers— and no cost 
could be too great to insure a perfect recon- 
cilement of those so lately divided by the 
maddening strife of Civil War. We labored 
and dared— not once only but persistently— 
to have that strife ended by a negotiation or 
treaty which should define the rights of all 
parties and preclude the possibility of confis- 
cations and executions for treason. Indeed, 
we should have much preferred that the last 
billion of dollars that the war cost should 
| have been expended in rebuilding and re- 
plenishing the homes of the South rather 
I than in continuing their devastation. So, 
when at last the Rebellion had utterly col- 
lapsed and fallen into absolute rum, our first 
thought was to save those engaged in it from 
further inflictions, our first utterance a plea 
that they should be treated with magnani- 
mity. At the moment when the assassination 
of President Lincoln had infuriated the lo\ al 



gaS aUnnfrndition of civil society in mill ions, so that their ears were temporarily 
tl/e outh is indispensable to the welfare of deaf to the pleadings of mercy, when Andrew 
the freedmen. n , Bm Johnson, The Herald, The Times, and other 

Refusing to admit loyal Senators .and ^ Jolmsoui;m orac les, were declaring that 
resentatives from the South to Congress wiu i 



not h tip the freedmen 
them the vote 



It will not secure for 



Treason must be made odious by ven- 

I will not protect them. It geance and bloodshed, we did our best to 

""" fwl calm the popular fury which they were so 

needlessly aggravating, and pleaded for con- 



Will not secure any amendment |of our I on- 

stitution, however jusl and wise. It will on- ^ 

lv increase the dangers and complicate tfie lotion d eace , Thousands of subscribers 

difficulties. Whether we regard the whole cmauo n hundreds 



Ulllieui ica. " '^'"" "- —o . . , 

nation or any section oi it or class m it, tnc 

first demand of OUT time is, entire reunion . „ 



left us, therefore, never to return; hundreds 
of erieved but forbearing friends wrote us 

• -as it 



a free press and increasing free speech, attack 

each evil and secures every good. 

Meanwhile, the great chasm which Rebel 
lion made is not filled up. It grows deeper 
and stretches wider I Oul of ii rise dread 
spectres and threatening Bounds. Let that 
rulf be closed, and bury in it Slavery, Bee 
limial animosity, and all strifes and hatreds 
It is lit that the brave men who, on sea 
and land, faced death to save the nation, 
should now, by their voice and vote, con- 
summate what their Bwords rendered possi- 
ble. 



we did not know the fact, or as it that fact 
mi „ h t influence our course; Even down to a 
very late day, the fact that we were seeking 
to have Jefferson Davis either promptly and 
fairly tried according to the laws of the land 
or liberated with his fellow insurgents, has 
been used by Tfu Times and its echoes to ex- 
cite againsl us the bitterest prejudice through- 
nut the loyal States. 

Bu( there is just one test of magnanimity 
thai we cannot abide, and that is the surren- 



,. I 11,11 >> v > 

p or the sake of the freedman, for the sake der of the Black Unionists to the 



of the South and its milliow ol our fellow- 
countrymen, lor oui own Bake, and 101 me 
greal cause of freedom and civilization, J 
ureethe immediate reunion oi all the parts 
Which Rebellionand War have shattered. 
1 am truly yo u 

iluMiv Ward Bebchbb, 



trolled lomination of their White enemies. 
We cannot, even for magnanimity's sake, be 
faithless and ungrateful. The Four Millions 
f Suuthem Blacks were called to her de- 
fense by the Nation in her hour of mortal 
peril They were promised their freedom in 



rase of her triumph ; and our honor is 
pledged to the complete fulfillment of that 
pledge. Whatever of sacrifice, pecuniary or 
otherwise, may be required, the Blacks must 

be tree BS we arc, and with like guaranties 

that their liberty is do snare and no accident 
The promise given in the agony of impend- 
ing National dissolution must be kept in the 
full sunshine of National deliverance and 
prosperity. • Two bundred thousand Blacks 
•who enlisted i" Bght for the Union, of whom 
Twenty-eight Thousand died in ber service, 
cannot, in full view of Memphis and New 
Orleans, be lefl to such treatment a.s those 
they enlisted to put down shall Bee tit to ac- 
cord them, without the blackest perfidy and 
ingratitude. The magnanimity <>f;i guardian 
who should make a present of bis ward's es- 
tate to a mistress, trusting that she would 
deal generously by the rightful owner, must 
not be imitated bv our rescued country. 
The trio of G morals who iu\ ite Mr. I 
er to pray al Cleveland for the sue 
Johnsonism treat this matter with a most 
eloquenl Bilence. Knowing how thoroughly 
their chaplain's honor and fame are bound up 
in the National recognition of the manhood 
of the Blacks, they do not even venture to as- 
sure him that, if Bucb a rare bird as a John- 
- tnized Black Union found, 

be should be made welcome at their Cleve- 
land Convention. They talk of "the rights 

of all 8 ction8," bul have never a word to offer 

for the rights of all men. They commend a 
i ou~ an I magnanimous policy toward 
f the South;" but they manifestly 
tail to recognize Four Millions of those peo- 
ple as people al all. They want the Union 
reconstructed mi a basis of" Christian broth- 
el ," hut tin \ plainly fail to ret 
Blacks as included in that brotherhood, or 
entitled to any rights but such as the I 
at once exasperated and chagrined at their 
overwhelming defeat, see lit to bestow on 
them. The Generals do not recognize even 
the overthrow <<( Slavery. OnMr.Beecher 
is thus imposed a task harder than there was 
any need of. They might and should have 

offered him some excuse, some palliation, for 
his betrayal of the rights of the bumble, per- 
secuted, Buffering millions who have long be- 
lieved in and trusted him as their advocate 
and champion. It was ungem rous, b 
unnecessary, on their part, to render his 
apostasy so hare, 30 black, BO hateful, SO hid- 
eous. Iu pity, if not in decency, they should 
have put something into their letter implying 
or insinuating that he mighl serve his new 
masters without betraying God's poor, and 



of ids past 
year-. lie; mili. ipl to blunt 

the fin Uies. 

Mi. Beecher, thi - wantonlj exposed, does 
bis vcr;. 1 • 

in'_' notoriety, he woul toned i sue- 

: population," he say.-, 

more irrita . No, M 
the only populai ountry u> ■ 

from die ri ■ rnment arc 

the Blacks, and tli w more irri- 

The White ex-Rebels I 
structed their Bevera] S ites, and now rule 
them with a rod i a . .<,;.■•. (" : , 

ioidsts are fleeing th< dc • by thousaxutei Bit 
ter, impenitent !.' now ruling most 

of them a- Govern rs; Rebel Generals and 

Colonels fill near!, i drahic oliice, and 

stand ready lo Bb 

your Johnson pat I mph in the loy- 

But the !■' .:. Millions of loyal 

Southerners guilty of b k have 

no vol' I ment they shed their 

to uphold, an 1 DO BhadoW of powi r 

even in i £ ere they constitute a 

ition. And John- 

Bonism is fully re- t, with your help, 

Shall have. That i.- clearly the 

i" of your Cleveland 
Convention. 

All your talk of danger being ap 
from the ad 

it ive and misleading. What 
- the representati »n of Southern 
acy i nd rebellion to the , 
South.. id loyalty. Mr. Stewart of 

Nevada last winter ] 

if all our remaining differei 
the basis of Universal Amnesty and Impar- 
tial Suffrage. Not ,, ; 

was raised froin the South in its favor. The 
men whom what you call " the South'' have 
ior and dread would 
the controversy on that I 
but " the South 

And now you excuse I blame 

us! 

military D . . Imr 00 word of 

hope foi Imen, you are constrained 

to drag in the un elcome topic. You scout 

the idea thai [ n> c in 1" 

and separated from the White population." 

.. u done by thi 
stitutions and laws which you are asked to 
validate and perpi f those 

ten Stat 

not admitting to i en re- 

constructed expn illy on tha 

assumption that th r.sub- 



making or enforcing the laws whereby they 
are governed. No one of them, though he 
were as great as Toussaint or as rich as Pur- 
vis, must ever vote, or sit on a jury, or hold 
the smallest public trust. Any White man 
may live in immoral co-habitation with a 
colored woman; but, if he marries her, he is 
punished for it as a criminal Blacks are 
grudgingly allowed to give testitimony in 
cases where Blacks are parties; but, it' a 
Black sees a White rob am! murder another 
White, his testimony cannot lie taken to 
bring the malefactor to justice. Thus, 
throughout the South, every coriceivabh 
device is employed to keep the Black 
graded and crushed, despised and benighted, 
and your chief, Andrew Johnson, tells them 
that they must not be enfranchised, because 
if they do, the Whites will kill them ! Such 
are the people, according to the represi 
tion of your and their head, to whose uncon 
troliablc disposal you propose to coiisi-n the 
■ thern Blacks, just after scores of them 
were butchered in New-Orleans for claiming 
the Right of Suffrage. And not Blacks only 
but Whites as well, were among the victims 
of that Moody tragedy. The Rev. Mr. Nor- 
ton, merely for prayin • ening of the 
Convention, w - basi lv murdered 
while an unresisting prisoner in the hands of 
the police. And there are many clergymen 
whom you honor and who have honored you 
who would rather be in his place than in" 
yours. 
But you coolly suggest that 

,''" land occupied 

with new hopes ami prosperous indust 
will be needed. Biota will subside ; careless hangers 
en will be driven off or b , ,| ; and a way 

will In- gradually opened up to the freedman, through 
education and industry, to lull citizenship, with all 
its powers and duti 

— I do not see how this differs in 
from the soft-voiced lullabies which 
our fathers into all the iniquitous compacts 
of the past. " Only save the Unio 

7 will gradually die out of itself." That 
fatal miscalculation ha- just cosl us al leasl 
Half a Million lives and five Billi( 
money. 1 thoughl you were i 
>\ho taught us to " seekfirst the kingdom of 
'o»d and His righteousness, and all these 
things shall be added unto V on." But our 
had made uo covenants with the 
Blacks guaranteeing their freedom, and 
i experience that we enjoy. 
H we fall where they stumbled, ,\ 
he clearesl light, 
four talk of the Blacks having a way 
ually opened up, through Education 
and Industry, to full citizenship," ei ins vi ry 
heartless and cruel, in view of tl 

hal there i- not one common or public 
school in all the Rebel states which a colored 
child is allowed toenter.and thai every efforl 

ire 3ome 3orl of public system 
1 ttion lor Blacks has been defeated by the 
"' ™ ' ■ ■ udency there. ],, New-Orleans 
the Hlacks pay fifteen per cent, of the 
ia.v, hut no colore, i child is allowed to share 
Us. benefits The children of Whites who 



,. v uuiuuig are scnooieu at the expense of 
Blacks who pay thousands, but whose chil- 
dren are never allowed to enter the schools. 
In the Texas Convention, the few " Radicals " 1 
struggled in every way to have some sort of 
provision made for educating the Blacks; 
finally urging that the school-taxes collected 
of them be appropriated to the education of ' 
their own children ; but every Rebel— I mean 
"Conservative"— united to vote down this 
and every other proposition looking to any 
education whatever of Blacks. In full view 
of such facts, Mr. Beecher's suggestion is a 
trial to human patience. 

How is it that it is always the North that 
is required to trust, and forbear, and hope? 
The South desires repn entation in Con- 
gress, and we respond, " .Most certainly— to- 
day, if you choose: only let all your people 
be represented — those who were nearly 
I nionists in our late struggle as well as those 
who were Rebels. Give us Impartial Suf- 
secured by a Constitutional Amend- 
ment, and make the other conditions of re- 
construction yourselves." " O no," says " the 
South ;" " we will stav out forever rather than 
ent to that." " Very well ; we can wait," 
say we. 
"Ah!" interposes Mi'. Beechcr, " let the 
Is in now, with the power of double 
representation, and 1 guess they will educate 
and enfranchise the Blacks by-and-by. Why 
should the North be afraid of the South T' 
-Mr. J}., we are afraid of being faithless to 
those who in our great need were faithful to 
us. We are afraid of being unjust. Is this 
tear ridiculous? 
But, says Mr. B. : 

■ Refusing to admit loyal Senators," &c. "will not 
help tin- freedmen." 

Whal do you mean by '"loyal" Senators, 
&c. ? Do you consider Gen. Forrest loyal ? 
i- Mayor .Monroe loyal ? Are his murdering 
police loyal? Is Capt. Semmes, Sheriff elect 
of .Mobile, up to the Beechcr stand of loyalty; 
Al! these say they are loyal, and copy Andrew 
Johnson in stigmatizing the Radicals as 
unionists" and " trailers." WJi.it is the 
standard of loyalty? For our own part 
knowing well that " the South" will be no- 
wise calmed, nor pacified, nor benefited in any 
way, by the admission of representatives who 
' ' ! " /■<< choice of her electors, we take 
mi interest in any sett lenient that shall not be 
lull and final. When the Southern States 
1 resume their place in the Nation's coun- 
cils, 1 trust they will be represented by such 

men as they choose to send ; but 1 protest 
against their election by Rebels alone. Let all 
the people rote ! If the Blacks are to be ex- 
cluded now I sec not how they are ever to be 
enfranchised. But my first concern is thatthe 
Nation shall maintain its plighted faith, ami 

DOt 

"keep the word of promise to the ear 

But break it to the liope." 

Mr. Beecher has achieved a sudden and 
w ide popularity. In the conception of every 
blackleg, duelist, negro-killer and rowdy 
from the St. John to the Rio Grande, he has 
all at once ceased to be a fanatic, a bigot, a 



disunionist, and become an enlightened 
patriot and Btat< sman. His praia - are freeh 
mingled with the blasphemies of the Boot 
and the ribaldry of The Sunday Merev/ry. 

There is not in all the land one who con- 
siders " niggers very well in their place," bul 
that place under the feet of the Whites, who 
does do) thank him for his letter. The Thugs 
of New-Orleans are by this time enjoying it ; 
and (Jen. Forrest would gladly presi 
merlin- called expressly to ratify it. Bul 
there I in m iny hearts where the 

eloquent pastor of Plymouth church bas been 
loved and honored — a mournful conscious- 
ness that thej hive trusted too confidingly 
and loved unwisely. " Little children 
your hearts from i 

II. Q. 



PLYMOUTH CHURCH TO MR. BEECHER. 

Shortly aft< r the publication of tin 
ofMr. . expressing his sympathy with 

the Cleveland Convention, an informal meet- 
ing of a number of the members of 
Plymouth Church was held, at which it was 
resolved to prepare a communication to the 
". setting forth the feeling ofthe Church 
in regard to his I Iter and position. The 
to rapt. Duncan, read 
rday in the Church, and published else- 
where, while partially explanatory of his 
course, does n it obviate the appropj 
of the able address which had Keen prepared 
in ao ..ith the above action, nor 
vitiate its force. 

As to the sentiment of Plymouth Church, 

which has always BtOOd " Without Tear and 

withoul r< proach " in the cause of liberty and 
right, we publish this address, below : 

lb the ii 0. Mi.miv W \;;d BeE< hi.::, 

of Tfymoiith ' v 

Ukvkijk.nd Sik and Di:\i: Friend : We, 
the undersigned members of Plymouth 
Church, while we havealwaj . vindicated the 
freedom of thoughl and liberty of Bpecch on 
all occasions and all subjects, feel called upon, 
I''-: our Bilence should be construed hum 
acquiescence, to state that wehave lead, with 
ipest pain and regret, the sentiments 
enunciated in your letter in reply to an invi- 
tation to attend the i lonvention about to be 
held at Cleveland, Ohio, as chaplain "to in- 
voke the Divine blessing upon the Conven- 
tion of the soldiers and sailors of the United 
Slates who served during the late Rebellion, 

and who approve- the restoration policj of 

President Johnson and the princip] 
nounced by the recent National Convention 

at Philadelphia." 

To us those sentiments seem so obviously 
at variance with all your former teachings, 
and such a wide departure from tin; doctrine 
of equal rights to all men which you have 



hitherto so earnestly and effectively labored 
to inculcate, that we are unable to construe 
them into a recognition "f the just rights of 
the loyal citizens of the Booth, and there- 
wards due to the freedmen lor the effective 
Mows which they struck lor our country 
win n in peril, and the can e of humam 

liberty when it «:i- at -lake. 

Nor can we reconcile our feelings to the 

conclusion that the .-land which \oii have 

taken i- predicated on a basis w hich will bring 

concord and happiness to Southern society, 

peace to the Government, or a npeedj 

tion ofthe Union ofthe Btat< w e I elieve 

that, in the of fa constitutional 

the right, 

i traitors, to determine, not only 

• ei represent, but a ,.dl be 

represented in their councils, and th( 

cannot assent to the proposition that the 
action of the late Co .•, as despotic in its 

tendencies or dang the liberties of otu 

country. 

^ We are apprehensive alac thai your new 
alliance will bring you into association with, 
and till mr inlluei 

position in favor of the political doctrines 
which are now being maintained and dis- 
seminated by those who have always been 
mimical to the best interests of the poor and 
oppressed of our land— a class who have 
bithevto In en permitted to turn to you a: all 
times tor the broadest sympathy and en- 
couragement, and to honor you as their jjreat- 
• ader and the especial champ 
I ami political rights. 
Plymouth Church, a- die world knoM -, has 
heretofore occupied no doubtful position in 
the great ■ liberate and elevate the 

enslaved. Instead of adopting the question- 
er of turning them over fir re 
lief and protection to tin society of theii 

bas Shown that she felt it to 

i be her il i remain inactive or to 

el mdiffereuce, 'out earnestly to itrive to 
subdue uuchristianlike and unjust prejudii 
to educate public sentiment in their favor, and' 

lo hasten tin- day of their i omplete and final 

deliveranc ■. 

\. e are anxious that our church shall stand 
i: > die futt has Btood in the past, 

foremost annum- th" fling for the 

right; and that all may know, and none have 
reason to doubt, whei to he found ; 

thus desiring, as ruemb • - of Ply- 
mouth Church, to dissent from the views and 
sentiments expressed in your letter, we, at 
the same time, would take occasion to renew 
our assurances that we entertain for you the 
sincerest affection and regard a.-, our pastor 
and friend. 

-May we yet be brought to think and act 

together in this y other movement 

ned tor the promotion and perpetuation 
of human libertj the elevation ofthe human 
mind, and the advancement of God's glory. 

We humbly subscribe ourseh Ifec- 

tionate friends and fellow-laborers in Ply- 
mouth Church. 



ANOTHER LETTER FROM MR. 
BEECHER. 

THE BEV. BENEY WARD BEEOHEB DE- 
FINES BIS POSITION — His DEFENSE 
OF THE CLEVELAND LETTER. 

At Plymouth Church yesterday the pulpit 
was occupied by the Rev. Mr. Burton, of 
Hartford, Conn. After the services were 

concluded, Mr. Burton stated that a letter had 
been received from Mr. Beecher, which 

would be read by ('apt. Duncan, a member 
of the congregation. 

Capt. Duncan came forward and said that 
.1 letter had been forwarded to him 1,, ."!;. 
Beecher, with a request that itdt was tl 
advisable or judicious by his friends it should 
be read, lie then read the following letter : 
Pkkkskill. Saturday, Aug. 8, 18G6. 

My Dear FniEND : 1 am obliged to you 
for your letter. 1 am sorry that my friends 
and my congregation are grieved 1>\ my 
Cleveland letter. 

This feeling, however, has no just grounds, 
whatever may he the seeming. 1 have not 
left, and do not propose to leave or to be put 
out of the Republican party. 1 am in sym- 
pathy with its aims, its ureal principles 
army of noble men. But 1 took the liberty 
of criticising its policy in a single respect, ; ud 
io do what 1 could to secure what 1 believed 
and still believe to be a better one. 

I am, and from the first have been, fully of 
opinion that the Amendment of the Constitu- 
tion, proposed by Congress, equalizing repre.- 

. m in Nor. hern and Southern 
was intrinsically jusl and reasonable, and that 
it should lie sought by a wholesome and per- 
moral agitation. 

But, from the presenl condition of the 
mind and from the President's atti- 
tude, I deemed such a change to be practi- 
cally impossible in any near period by p 
action. And a plan of reconstruction, 

ei ms to me far more like a plan 
of adjourning reconstruction for years at 
lea.-,!, with all the liabilities of mischief which 
are always to be expected in the fluctuations 
of politics in a free nation. 

Itisnol the. North that chiefly needs the 
.don of Government to' its normal 
sphere and regular action. Either the ad\ an- 
tages of Union are fallacious or the con- 
tinuous exclusion of the South from it will 
breed make the future reunion 

mon; difficult, and especially subject the 

freedman to the very worst conditions of so- 
ciety which can well exist. No army, no 
Government and uo earthly power can com- 
pel the South to treat four million menjustiy 
n aether rightly or wrongly) 
regard these men a.-, the cause, or even the 
a, of their unhappiness and dis- 
franchisi me il But no army, or Government, 
or power will he required when Southern 



society in restored, occupied and prospering 
in the renewed Union. Then the negro mi 
be felt to be necessary to Southern industry, 
and interest will join with conscience and 



kindness in securing lor him favorable treat- 
ment from his fellow-citizens. 

We that live at a distance may think that 
the social reconstruction involved in the 
emancipation of four million slaves is as 
simple and easy as it is to discourse about it. 
a a change is itself one of the most 
tremendous teste to which industry and so- 
ciety can lie subjected; and to il-* favorable 
issue is required every advantage possible. 
'Ilie longer, therefore,' the South is left in 
turmoil, the worse it will be for the negro. 
If there were no other reason; if the white 
population were not our fellow-citizens; if 
we Lad lost all kindness and regard for them, 
and all pride for the Union, as in part repre- 
sented by the Southern Slates, and confined 
our attention exclusively to the negro, the 
case would be strong, beyond my power of 
expression, for an early resumption of Federal 
relations with all the Slates. If this is to 
■ id the negro, then all social and natu- 
ral laws have been studied in vain. 

Neither am 1 a " Johnson man " in any 
received meaning of that term. I accept 
thai part of the policy which he favors; but 
with modification. 1 have never thought 
that it would he wise to bring back all the 
States in a body, and at once ; any more than 
it would be to keep them all together. One 
by one, in due succession, under a practical 
i nt, rather than by a wholesale theore- 
tic rule, 1 would have them readmitted. I 
s'ill think a middle course between the 
President's and that of Congress would be 
Wiser than either. But with this my agree- 
ment with the President ends. I have long 
regretted his ignorance of Northern ideas 
and sentiments, and 1 have been astonished 
and pained at his increasing indiscretions. 
isciously, the President is the chief 
obstacle to the readmission of Southern States. 
It is enough that he is known to favor a 
measure to set the public mind against it. 
to be deplored. But, it is largely 
owing to his increasing imprudent, conduct. 
1 believe him to be honest, sincere in desir- 
ing what lie regards as the public good, but 
slow and unapt in receiving help from other 
minds. Proud and sensitive, firm to obstinacy, 
to fierceness, intelligent in his own 
Sphere (which is narrow), he holds his opin- 
ions inflexibly, lie often mistakes the in- 
tensity of his own cunvietions for strength of 
evidence. 

Such a mar. litis a true sphere in periods of 
peril, when audacious firmness and rude 
ire needed. But in the delicate tasks 
of adjustment which follow civil war, such a 
nature lacks that tact and delicacy and moral 
intuition which constitutes the true states- 
man. 

.Mr. Johnson's haste to take the wrong side 
at the atrocious massacre at Xcw-Orleans, 
was shocking. The perversion and mutila- 
tion of Sheridan's dispatches need no charac- 
terization. 1 do not attribute this act to him. 
Yet il was of Mich a criminal and disgraceful 
nature that not to clear himself of it by the 
exposure and rebuke of the offending party, 
amounted to collusion with crime after the 



9 



fact. "What shall I Bay of the Bpeoches made 
in the wide recent circuit of the Executive I 
Are these the waj a of reconciliation ( 

Yet Mr. Johnson Lb to be oar President for 
nearly three years to come; clothed with a 
power which belongs to few thrones, 
the honor which a people owe to him as tin- 
Chief Magistrate, we must, as Christian citi- 
zens, credit him with his real excellencies— 
his original horror of Secession, his bold re- 
sistance i" treachery, his persistent and Belfr 
denying heroism in the long dark days of 
Tenm --■■■-. We must not forgcl that he has 
jealously resisted a centralization of power 
in the Federal Government; that he has 
Bought to dignify and Bocure a true 
Rights; that he has maintained a simplicity 
of manners and a true love of the comm >n 
pe iple. It if our duty, likewise, to fi - 
and pn i mu h as possible, by kind 

but faithful i r ticism i -.' his errors on I 
b ind, and by sympathy and ki idness on the 
other, those dangers to which he is liable 
under attacks which he is peculiarly unable 
to bear with calmness, and those d ing i- ol 
evil counselors, which more and moi 
itate toward him. So long as it waspo sible, 
1 have hern silent upon Mr. Johnson's faults, 
and now speak bo plainly, only l< . I 

approve or cloak them. 

And now allow me to exp - irpriae 

at the turn which the public Uliu I ha 

on my letter. It 1 h id uevnr before 
my sentiments I can s e how frisrids might 
now mis apprehend my p »sil on. Bui I >r ■■■ 
year past I have been advocating the very 
'principles of the CleveLind letter m all the 
chief Eastern cities — in Boston, Portland, 
Springfield, Albany, Utica, R ichester, Buffalo, 
Philadelphia, Barrisburgh, Pittsburgh and 
Brooklyn fat the Academy of Music, last 
Winter). 'These views were reported, dis- 
cussed, agreed to or differed from, | 
and blamed abundantly. Hat no one thought, 
or at leasl Baid, that 1 remember, that 1 had 
forsaken the Republican party, or had turned 
my back upon the free Im in. My recent let- 
ter hut condenses those views winch for 

twelve months 1 have been can, Stly I ; 

in urging upon the attention of the commu- 
nity. 1 am not surprised thai men dissent. 
Bat this sadden consternation, and this late 
discovery of the nature of my opinions, aeem 
sufficiently surprising. 1 could a >i ask a bet- 
ter s in ice than the reprinting of thai - arm >n 
of last October, which Ural brought upon me 
the criticism of Tin. TRIBl m. an 
pendent. 

1 foresaw tint, in the probable condition 
of parties and the country, we could not carry 
suffrage for the freedman by immediate polit- 
ical action. When the ablest and moel radi- 
cal Congress Of our history came together, 
they refused to _ r i\e suffrage to negrot s, even 
in the District of Columbia; and only in an 

indirect way— not as a political right, but 09 

the hoped-for result of political selfishness-— 

did they provide for it by an amendment of 
the Constitution. "What was prophesy with 
me, Congress has made history. Relinquish- 
ing political instrument* for gaining the full 



enfranchisement of men, I instantly turned 
to moral means, and, enunciating the broadest 
doctrine of Manhood Suffrage, 1 gave the 
wi lest latitude to that, advocating the rights 

Ck and white, of men and women, to 
VOtft It' any man has labored UlOre Openly, 

on a broader principle, and with more 
uity, I do not know him. More ability may 
have been shown, hut no; more directni 
purpose nor un levi iting consistency. 

1 attribute the recent misunderstanding, in 
part, to the greater excitement which aow 
exists, to the narrowing of the Issues, and t«> 
:treme exacerbation which Mr. John- 
exit :y am! injudicio i 
iroduced. To this may he added my 
known i m to join in criticism upon 
Qie President, and the fact that 1 m 
led form ol that policy which he, 
tuna;- iccess, holds. 

Upon Mr. Johnson's I was su- 

premely Impressed with the conviction 
whoU problem of reconstruction would 
practka ■ • ny of Mr../ 

an i ( ongrtse. With that we could have se- 

mtee and e\ ery amendment 

of the Constitution. Bad a united Govern- 
iid to the 8 .a tii. promptly hacked up, 
as it would have been, by the united North, 
'• With Slavery un must take out of Vu ConeUtu- 
• in, and put in what- 
'■■, ry for - pport left out " — 

in Bcarccly be a doubt tli it long be- 
fore this, the question would have been Bet- 
tied, the basis of representation in the South 
c inform d to th it in the North, and the prin- 
ciple, the mosl fun laniental and important of 
all, luighl have been established in the Con- 
stitution, viz: tii&tManJtood and full citizen- 
rt identical. 
Such gre it changes require two things, viz : 
Promptness and Unity of Counsels. To 
secure these 1 bent my whole strength. 1 
urged the purgation of the Constitution. I 
■ 1 against mutual distrust, and pleaded 
f >r unit rn mental action. 1 did all 

th a 1 knew how to do to confirm the Preei- 
dcnl in his war-begotten zeal against slavery; 
to prevent such suspicions and criminations 
aa would tend to revise in his inind old pre- 
judices, and living on a relapse into his 
former hatred of Northern fanatics. 1 thought 
1 understood ins nature, and the extrem< 
dangers, at such a critical time, of Irritating 

a proud, sensitive and p JguacioUS man, of 

Southern sympathies, little in Bympathy 
with Northern feelings or idea-, and brought 
into the very leadership of those men, and 
that train of principles which he had aQ his 
lite hated and di uounced. Thai lie was Bin- 
cere and tenaci i, i would make the case ail 
the in e,e difficult. 1 thought I foresaw that 
a division between him and Congress would 
be the worst disaster that could befall as; 
that tie t at of ti mship 

just then was UOl to he f'Und in theories or 
philosophies, however sound, hut in securing 
and confirming Mr. Johnson in hit then ditpo- 
titione. 

Upon the assembling of Congress I went to 
Washington. I foun 1 Southern ineu lying 



prostrate before Mr. Johnson, and appealing 
to his tender-heartedness (for he is a man of 

kind and tender heart i, disarming his war 
rage l>y otter submission. 

I found Northern men already uttering 
suspicions of Ins fidelity, and, conscious of 
power, thre lening impeachment The men 
who seemed alive to this danger, were, unfor- 
tunately, not those who had the management 
of affairs. Bad counsels prevailed. The 
North denounced and the South sued ; we see 
the consequences. 

Long after I despaired of seeing the Presi- 
dent and Congress harmonious, I felt it to be 
the duty of all good men to leave no influence 
untried to lessen the danger, and to diminish 
the evils which are sure io come, should the 
President, rebounding from the Republicans, 
be caught by those men who were in sym- 
pathy and counsel with the South throughout 
the war. I shall not attempt to apportion 
blame where both sides erred. It is enough 
to say that unity secured at the seat of Gov- 
ernment would have been a noble achieve- 
ment of leadership. 

^ Deeming the speedy admission of Hie 
Southern States as necessary to their own 
health, as indirectly the best policy for the 
freedmen, as peculiarly needful to the safety 
of our Government, which, for the sake of 
accomplishing a good end, incautious men 
are in danger of perverting, I favored and do 
still favor the election to Congress of Repub- 
licans who will seek the early admission of 
the recusant States. J laving urged it for a 
year past, 1 was more than ready to urge it 
again upon the various conventions which 
preceded the nomination of Representatives 
to Congress this Fall. In this spirit and for 
this end I drew up my Cleveland letter. 1 
deem its views sound ; 1 am not sorry that 1 
wrote it. 1 regret, the misapprehension v\ hich 
it has caused, and yet more any sorrow which 
it may have needle-sly imposed upon dear 
friends. As I look back upon my course I see 

no deviation from that straight line which 1 
have male, without wavering, for now thirty 
years of public life, in favor of justice, liberty, 
and the elevation of the poor and ignorant/ 

The attempt to class me with men whose 
course I have opposed all my life long will 
utterly fail. I shall choose my own place, 
and Bhall nol 6e moved from it. 1 have been, 
from my youth, a firm, unwavering, avowed 
and active friend of all that were oppn ed 

I have done nothing to forfeit that good name 

which I have earned. 1 am not going weakly 

to turn away troin my settled convictions of 

the public weal for tear that bad men may 
praise me or good men blame. There is a 
serious difference of judgment between men 
as to the best policy. We must all remit to 

the future the decision of the question. Pact 
will soon judge us. 

1 feel now profoundly how imperfect my 
services have been to my country, compared 
with its desert of noble servicea But I am 
conscious that I have given all that I had to 
give, without fear or favor. Above all 
earthly things is my country den to inc. The 
lips that, taught me to say " Our Father," | 



10 

I taught me to say "Fatherland." I have 
aimed to conceive of that land in the light of 
Christianity. God is my witness that with 
! singleness "of heart I have given all my time, 
strength and service to that which" shall 
make our whole nation truly prosperous and 
glorious. Not by the luster of arms, even in 
a just cause, would I seek her glory, but by a 
civilization that should carry its blessings 
down to the lowest classes, and nourish the 
very roots of society by her moral power and 
purity, by her public conscience, her political 
justice, and by her intelligent homes, filling 
up a continent and rearing a virtuous and 
nobler citizenship. 

By night and by day this is the vision and 
dream of my life, and inspires me as no per- 
sonal ambition ever could. 1 am not discour- 
aged at the failure to do the good 1 meant, at 
the misapprehension of my church, nor the 
severity of former friends". Just now those 
angry voices come to me as rude winds roai 
through the trees. The winds will die, the 
trees will live. As soon as my health is again 
restored, 1 shall go right on in the very course 
1 have hitherto pursued. Who will follow or 
accompany, it is for others to decide. I shall 
labor lor the education of the whole people; 
for the enfranchisement of men without re- 
gard to class, caste or color; for full develop- 
ment among all nations of the liberty where- 
with Christ makes men tree. In doing this I 
will cheerfully work with others, with parties 
—any and all men that seek the same glorious 
ends. But 1 will not become a partisan. I 
will reserve my right to differ and dissent, 
and respect the same right in others. Seek- 
ing others' full manhood and true personal 
liberty, I do not mean to forfeit my own. 

Better days are coming. These throes of 
our days are labor-pains. God will bring 
forth ere long great blessings. In some mo- 
ments which it pleases God to give me, I 
think I discern arising beyond the present 
troubles, and over the other side of this abyss 
in which the nation wallows, the fair form" of 
liberty—God's dear child— whose whole 
beauty was never yet disclosed. I know her 
solemn \'u-q. That she is Divine I know by 
her girdle of purity, by her scepter of justice, 
and by that atmosphere of Love, that, issuing 
from her, as light from a star, moves with 
her, more royal than a king's apparel. In 
this too, 1 know her divinity, that she shall 
bless both friends and enemies, and yield the 
fullest fruition of liberty to those who would 
have slain her; as, once, her Master gave his 
lite tor the salvation of those who slew him. 
I am your true friend and pastor, 

Henry Wakd Beecher. 



The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher has written 
a second and longer letter explanatory of that 
published a week before. It contains a great 
many words, and would seem to require a 
much longer Idler of explanation than that 
it explains. We can speak of it but briefly. 



The great party wherewith Mr. I'< 
hae acted tolerates a very wide diversity of 
views among its members; but, when 
goes over to the enemy, they understand thai 
he is no longer of its household. Now the 
Cleveland Soldiers' Convention Is a move- 
ment aimed at the life of tin: Republican 
party. It lean attempt to enlist those who 
put down the Rebellion by arm- in the ser- 
vice of those who mean that it shall still 
triumph in essence and In spirit It is a 
movement pervaded and animated by the 
devilish spirit of Caste, whose parents are 
Shivery and inhumanity. Whoever Intelli- 
gently favors that Convention favors the 
crushing out of thy Republican party and the 
fixing of the Rebel's beel on the .' 
neck. Be virtually say-, "Give the Rebels 
all they ask now, and perhaps they will he 
kind to the Blacks by-and-by." The Reb I 
take all power of right, and Mr. Beecher says 
for them, what they will not -ay tor them- 
Belves, that perhaps they will educate and 
enfranchise the Negro sometime or other. 
We prefer to let the Rebels speak for them- 



V 



11 

Belves. Memphis and New-Orleans are no 
work. 
Mr. Bc< i not charge 

Andrew Johnson with garbling Gen. Sheri- 

dan's N' .\ < Orleans dispatch. Who did garble 
it? T/u Timet knows from whom its Wash- 
ington correspondent received the forged 
copy: If Mr, Johnson can lie cleared of the 

crime, why is it not done? We know that 
neither Gen. Gram nor Secretary Stanton is 
the culprit. Who it, then, if not Andrew 
Johnson ?" 

Ten millions of people have probably read 
Mr. Beccher's letter to Slo.iim, Halpinc & 
Co. At leasl 999 of every 1,000 of them have 

undersl 1 that letter as a manifesto in favor 

of the Johnson-Copperhead-Rebel coalition 

to put the Republicans out of power, keep 
the Blacks in serfdom, and let the Rebels 
have their own way in all things. It now 
seems that we all totally misunderstood it. 
We trust Mr. 15. will write one more letter — 
a very short one — to say which of the two 
Philadelphia Conventions commands hi- 
sympathy. — The Iribune. 



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